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The NHL canceled more games yesterday, pushing itself toward a likely mid-January precipice for saving any portion of the 2012-13 season.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has said that a mid-January start date is the latest the league could begin play with a 48-game schedule, which he has described as the fewest games possible for a “season of integrity.”

This means that, failing an agreement between the league and the NHL Players’ Association on a new collective-bargaining agreement, the next wave of games canceled could be the mother lode — 605 games, or the remainder of the season.

The NHL already is the only major sports league to have canceled an entire season (2004-05) because of labor strife. Now it’s on the verge of doing it for the second time in eight seasons.

The league yesterday axed 99 games off the schedule from Dec. 31 through Jan. 14, bringing the number of games canceled to 625, not counting the All-Star Game, which was to be hosted by the Blue Jackets in Nationwide Arena on Jan. 27.

The Blue Jackets have had 42 games canceled, including 17 that would have been played at Nationwide. If the season had started on time, the Blue Jackets would have played host to the Vancouver Canucks tonight.

It’s never been less clear when the NHL might return, as the talks took a sharp turn in recent weeks toward the courts.

The players association has begun the process of empowering its negotiating committee to decertify the union, meaning no relationship — not in the form of a collective-bargaining agreement, anyway — would exist between the league and the players. In that scenario, any limits imposed by owners on players — such as how they can be drafted, how much they can be paid, how free they are to move from club to club — would be seen as an infringement on free trade.

The players began voting on Sunday to give their leaders the right to drop the hammer in the coming days. Decertification is expected to be approved.

The NHL, meanwhile, has filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court to prevent the union from disbanding, arguing that the process of decertifying is meant for use when a union no longer feels represented by its leadership, which is not the case with the players under union executive director Donald Fehr.

If the bargaining process reaches the legal system, the 2012-13 season is effectively canceled, and this summer’s NHL draft, free agency and even the start of next season would be put on the clock.

The two sides would appear very close to a deal. They have agreed, essentially, on how to divide hockey-related revenue, which was seen as the biggest hurdle at the onset of talks.

They still have a gap to close regarding the length of the next agreement, contract term limits for players, etc.

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